WITH the patriotic sentiments of Filipino artists and athletes championing the country, a surrogating behavior alarmed the social media, done by ABS-CBN Star Liza Soberano in Twitter. This was after previewing the cast of a new fantasy series of the network “Bagani”, which tells a story of the characters in a pre-colonial Philippine setting.
I stumbled upon the tweet of Liza as my friend scrolled through her online profile. There to confirm, I thought that there should be nothing wrong with liking Filipino dishes, nor having it as a staple food for some reason. What only anticipated the flaks was solely because she, perhaps, lacked points.
What really makes her a Filipino? With his father being “full Pinoy”, and loving sinigang, she had brought the argument she mentioned on her viral tweet.
A definition of a Filipino can be determined in physical and primary rubrics, such as cultural roots and foundation. But, saying “Pinoy” as an identity is perhaps another thing, with a juxtaposition of bloodline and lifestyle. Bloodline traces the past regimes of colonies and inhabitants that made pertinent civilization, wherein lifestyle relates influential actions along time. Soberano’s terms, in a broader sense, could have been implying that being a Filipino is about “loving” a conceivably modernized culture, setting aside her first statement about her father being one, and therefore might be referring to a lifestyle-like reason.
Liza’s mother is an American, which plainly shows that her ancestries are not purely what she claimed to be ‘Filipino’. Although, there are various factors – it may be the complexion, or language that identifies racial classification, estranges connections, or distinguishes the differences of such identities. Indeed, these can connote widespread possibilities of labelling, yet it can sound unfulfilling if the way of pursuing distinctiveness can be grounded upon a mixture of influences.
Doing barter, flourishing faith through Catholicism, and specific festivities are not plausible to be authentic Filipino trademarks. Relating each, however, is traceable but flawed. This could be one main argument that she had left hanging, because in the first place, her attributes did not match the supposed face of a “Bagani” appeal, echoing an idea of making the characters, including her, look tan.
Although she had grasped the fans’ interests with her radiant editorial shoots and castings in various TV shows and movies, I wonder how the fans can also become critical by the moment she had clicked the tweet button relevant to the trend. We cannot teach her because of her uncanny reasons, but since she is a public figure, we can demand something meaningful in the purpose of abrupt criticisms through her power.
We have struggled, as Filipinos, to embark our culture as different. We have also made ourselves endangered in the standardized history of discipline, and that is why we commit these misappropriations. The statement, “I looooove sinigang I think that’s as Pinoy as Pinoy can get” can never define what a true Filipino is. It is not as if loving a certain food can label a person its nationality, and thus making such label can defy true identity. Perspectives can always be dealt correctly. (Yves Mathieu Africa)
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Yves Mathieu is a 4th year Business Management student and an Atenews member of Ateneo de Davao University.